SC1896_FF1_005

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your spirits - I can be as happy & as merry as the
best of you, without drinking." He taught school
for several years in fact until he married
which I suppose was in 1795 or 1796. He married
his cousin Mary Harris, who was an orphan
without property - but a young Lady of great per
sonal [personal] beauty and much admired. She was
a [underlined: good] woman - a kind, affectionate wife, tender
mother, tender & indulgent to a fault.

All the "school" education I ever received with
a very small exception was from him. At the
country schools, in those days, nothing was taught
but reading, writing and "cyphering". The Bible
& Testament, with Delworth's spelling book, were
the only school books. I cyphered, thro' Del
worth's [Delworth's]; arithmatic, twice. I went to school
3 months to an old named Dejarnett & 3 or 4
months in 1798 to an old man named Stephen
Wood - a worthy, good old man, wrote against
Lands & was a good [underlined: Arithmatician] - all said.
About the year 1791, my uncle Samuel John
son [Johnson] (mother's brother) wrote that he was de
sirous [desirous] to remove to Kentucky, but could not
could not think of coming without a pilot. My brother
Pentecost was after great consultation selected
to return to Maryland for Uncle. I distinctly
remember the great interest that seem to be felt
in the family on the subject. Great preparations
were made, a horse had to be fattened - this
rifle gun must be put in good order, and all
the parapharnalia for a journey "thru the Wil
derness" [wilderness], all the country at that time between
the Crab Orchard, in Lincoln County & Cumber
land [Cumberland] Gap, being unsettled, was called "the
Wilderness". It was dangerous to travel the
road which was infested with hostile "Indi
ans" [Indians] and hostile "Whites" who robbed & murdered
on the credit of the Indians. The travellers
generally rendevouzed [rendezvoused] at the Crab Orchard, on
an appointed day - and passed thro "the Wil